Accuracy in Media: What Is It Good For?

Accuracy in Media: What Is It Good For?
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Accuracy in Media, it can be argued, was founded in a fit of pique.

In his 1984 book Media Mischief and Misdeeds, Reed Irvine stated that AIM's founding came about because of what he called "abuses" by television networks in "their coverage of such events as the riots in Chicago at the time of the 1968 Democratic National Convention." After trying and failing to find journalists willing to criticize fellow journalists, he claims, he founded AIM in 1969 "with the deliberate policy of not involving active journalists in its work or its direction" with $200 in seed money contributed by conservative philanthropist Wilson Lucom.

Irvine claimed that his criticism of the media was "hard-hitting" and "factual," further asserting they were "just, accurate and well documented."

That's debatable. But if AIM was ever "just, accurate and well documented," it certainly isn't now. With the most prominent public voice of AIM is the ranting, conspiracy-prone Cliff Kincaid, followed closely behind the factually screeds of Don Feder at AIM's New York Times boycott site, it can't be otherwise.

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